Hello! Welcome to the first Synth Signal - An update and news roundup column about the shmup SynthEscape.
Dev Update
Note: Game Development is a tricky and iterative process. Changes will occur.
SynthEscape is currently planned to have 5 levels total - each between 5-15 minutes to play through. This is a genre designed to be replayed over and over again to perfect your score, so striking that balance with pacing is very important (as well as including little secrets throughout the levels to hunt through on repeated playthroughs).
Here's the roadmap.
Level 1: Last Light City - 5% done
This will be the final level I'll work on. As this'll be the first impression for players, I want to make sure I'm the most experienced with the gameplay loop, Godot Engine, etc. Taking a page from the original God of War's development, where the first boss (the hydra) was the last developed (as the team was the most experienced working on the game at that point)
That said, one of the music tracks I'm currently working on will likely be this level's music!
Level 2: Sunset Speedway - Currently playtesting!
There are a few modifications I will make (enemy health adjustments, a few FPS optimizations, formation adjustments, etc), but I'm pretty happy with where it's at now.
Level 3: Ghost in the Machine - 40% complete.
Lots of assets created. Level structure planned out.
Level 4: The Burning Climb - 20% complete
Some assets created. Bit of refinement on the first half of the level.
Level 5: SynthEscape - 10% complete
Minimal assets created.
Main Menus/General UI - 80% complete
Minor bugs with the custom UI I developed.
Mouse support for menus is coming!
If you aren't aware, I am a solo dev working on this as a hobby in my spare time. Very fun process.
Playtesting - Live Now!
Playtesting is underway for Level 2 - Sunset Speedway! We've had about 17 people thus far including friends, family, shmup streamers, and streamers I randomly stumbled across through my outreach. There's been a lot of common feedback and strengths I've been seeing.
The Good
Lots of praise on the aesthetic of the game and mood it sets.
"The game is a vibe. And it also has a vibe mode so how 'bout that." 🫡- Lord Shmup
The "readability" of the bullets and enemies is never compromised. The background parallax effect is beautiful, and overall, the visual department is impeccable. - Kuro Kosmico
Level design and pacing
"The level design is very good. Adding a mini-boss in the middle of the level is a great decision; it improves the pacing and smooths out the learning curve. There isn't a single point where the enemies feel repetitive. You always know exactly what hit you." - Kuro Kosmico
"played it exactly once so far but I think it's truly great. gameplay is fun and I can see how this might get addictive with harder difficulties" - moonycoot
"i also liked the variety of ideas put into that stage, as well as the gradius-like midboss design and the soundtrack i hope there will be more tracks in the future, because they add significantly to the vibe ^^" - Max
Common Feedback
Hitbox is a little small, visually. Ideas I currently have
Create a more obvious "glow" effect that shows grazing area when bullets are close by.
Change the color of the hitbox to something that does not match the enemy bullets.
UI Design
Mouse support (It's coming, I promise!)
Expanded sound options in-game
Resolution settings
Small suggestions on how to make menu feel more natural.
Scoring System
This was the result of a great chat with GameBoyGuru, where we talked about the power of "big number go up". Instead of every 100 grazes = your score multiplier increases by 1x, why not make it 10x? There should also be bigger indicators of how to improve your score in the end screen: no hit or no dying bonuses, etc. I'll play around to see what's most fun.
If you are interested in playtesting, send me an email at [email protected], or comment below!
What's Next?
Currently I am concentrated on marketing to streamers and making small changes based on the feedback. Steam Bullet festival is coming up in June, and I want the current level 2 demo to be as polished as possible. Building out level 3 is after that.
That's all for now! I'll be posting a roundup of streamers covering SynthEscape in a separate post to give them some visibility. Thanks for reading!